So far in my life, I have been a perpetual renter. With seemingly no hope to purchase one of the four houses built in the UK every year, this editor has come to terms with that.

While renting is slightly less annoying than ever, the Tenant Fees Act banning most letting fees and capping tenancy deposits, insurance can still be a pain.

Contents insurance in particular can be a drain on renters. That is if insurers even take up rents on contents insurance policies as many deem them to be too high a risk.

In addition, it always seems to be one size fits all. Insure it all or insure nothing. However, there are a number of flexible options entering the UK market.

Insurtech Brolly has launched an app-based contents insurance policy.  Dubbed “Brolly Contents” and built in partnership with insurer Hiscox, it is a monthly subscription that reduces in price with loyalty.

In addition, it has an AI-enabled photo tool to identify contents.  The policy is for people who want to insure £40,000 ($48,590) worth of belongings in a flexible, modern way.

Insurtech Brolly has no fees or phone calls for essential changes. Furthermore, eligible customers receive a quote in less than 60 seconds after registration. Customers can also take photos of their possessions and the app’s AI-powered “computer vision” will identify the items.

Urban Jungle, focusing on helping generation rent gain insurance, raised £2.5m ($3.3m) in a seed funding round in May 2019.

It wants to cater to the growing number of UK renters, or generation rent, that have been underserved by the insurance sector.

As a result, it offers pay-as-you-go policies, commitment to transparent pricing, and modern policy terms.

Its platform was designed from scratch with renters in mind. Urban Jungle worked closely with underwriters to get rid of many legacy home-owner questions renters are asked when starting a policy. The goal was to make it easier to understand and better suited to “Generation Rent”.

Cover starts at just £5 a month, but the insurtech has bigger plans. It hopes to stay with its customers as they grow and experience new parts of life. Fundamentally, this means Urban Jungle can expand its product offering.

In addition, buzzvault, part of tech firm buzz, launched in the UK at the end of 2018.

Calling itself the “world’s first truly personalised home insurance policy”, it utilises digitised home contents data. Furthermore, the home insurance insurtech is in partnership with Munich Re Digital Partners.

buzzvault is app-based and uses customer data, as well as mobile video survey technology, for its customer journey. This applies from home insurance application through to claim.

With the free app, householders survey each room in the home via a direct link to a buzzvault certified surveyor. Afterwards, the recorded footage is converted into a digital inventory with a value assigned.

Customers can then view, update, and amend their buzzvault from the app and get an instant value of all their possessions. In addition, only a small number of questions need to be answered before a quote.

Furthermore, customers can choose to remove items, amend values, and add new purchases with receipts to keep their insurance up to date.

There is finally some new blood in the contents insurance market and offering exciting alternatives. It seems that rents, and their possessions, no longer have to worry about being left out in the cold.

Patrick Brusnahan, Editor
Patrick.brusnahan@verdict.co.uk